it may be (should?) possible to do fax without copper. i think some company has adapters to go from fiber (VoIP??) to regular telephone copper wire pairs so people can use their old phones. a google search also suggests that there are fax machines with ethernet adapters.
Its incredibly naive to suggest that "adapters" will provide the same exact interface and functionality as the incumbent copper lines - and it is certainly no excuse for shafting millions of customers.
I'm all for a nationwide upgrade to FIOS-like facilities. But FIOS hasn't exactly been standardized or proven yet, nor have non-VZ telcos adopted it, and we've yet to see exactly how it will be priced. And for such a critical national infrastructure as the switched network, you don't just abandon the customers overnight, by fiat or neglect.
FIOS is Verizon's brand name for its offering of BPON . Everything in FIOS, all the plant, all the ONTs, and the ONUs, everything is off the shelf and standardized and has been used by many other [small/rural] American and foreign telephone companies. The closest FIOS comes to proprietary is the set top boxes for FIOS TV.
